Col. John Mills and Brannon Howse discuss the ChiComs’ attempt to STEAL and INFLUENCE Taiwan’s elections

01/15/2024 / By Kevin Hughes

Former U.S. Army Col. John Mills and host Brannon Howse talked about the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) effort to steal and influence the elections in Taiwan during the Jan. 10 episode of Howse’s “Worldview Report.”

Howse told Mills the CCP was working overtime to try to steal and influence the election in Taiwan. Mills agreed, noting Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent comments that China is going to take over the island nation.

The military official also noted the artificial intelligence-enabled alert about a missile flying over Taiwan, which caused chaos at a news conference where Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu was speaking. The former director for cybersecurity policy, strategy and international affairs at the Department of Defense explained that the emergency alert happened because of miscommunication.

He noted that while a rocket was launched into space, it was not over Taiwan. Such an incident is not actually uncommon with missile launches like that, he added, because it takes minutes to determine its trajectory.

“So, the bottom line is this caused chaos,” said Mills. “Was this intentional intimidation by China? You bet it was. Even if it was a commercial launch there’s really no such thing as a commercial launch in China that has space capability. It was intentional to spook everybody. It really did, it rattled the room,”

China’s least preferred candidate is Taiwan’s new president

According to Mills, Wu was talking about mainland China’s disinformation and cognitive warfare strategy during the news conference. (Related: Taiwanese foreign minister expects China to manipulate the upcoming 2024 Presidential election in Taiwan.)

“It’s an absolute cognitive warfare via social media by the CCP to just sow hate and discontent about the election, about all things Taiwan and America,” Mills explained. But the CCP’s effort fell short again as its least preferred candidate, Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), won the presidency.

“China has labeled Lai as a troublemaker and they don’t like him and they definitely don’t like his vice president [Hsiao Bi-khim],” Mills said, adding that everybody in the DPP wants to make Taiwan great again. The military officer added that “Taiwan is a sovereign and independent nation that doesn’t need permission from China.”

Lai, the current vice president, defeated Hou Yu-ih of the conservative Kuomintang (KMT) and former Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), which was only founded in 2019. With votes from all polling stations counted on Jan. 13, the Central Election Commission said Lai won 40.1 percent, ahead of Hou’s 33.5 percent.

Hou conceded defeat and congratulated Lai on his victory. He also apologized to KMT supporters for not being able to remove the DPP. Ko also conceded defeat.

“I want to thank the Taiwanese people for writing a new chapter in our democracy,” Lai said in a victory speech where he thanked his two opponents for conceding. “We are telling the international community that between democracy and authoritarianism, we will stand on the side of democracy.”

But the CCP is not one to concede defeat over an election result.

Responding to Lai’s win, Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Chen Binhua said in a statement that “Taiwan is China’s Taiwan.”

Follow CommunistChina.news for more news about China and its attempt to influence Taiwan’s elections.

Watch the video below to learn more about Col. John Mills’ report on the “Worldview Report.”

This video is from the Worldview Report channel on Brighteon.com.